Mad Diet

11/06/2026

Most of us take vitamin C to help fend off lurgies or boost collagen production for healthier skin. But this powerful antioxidant is vital for brain health too.

Vitamin C helps form oligodendrocytes – wee support cells in the brain and spinal cord. Their main job is to create the myelin sheath – a protective fatty layer that insulates neurons.

This insulation shields nerve fibres from damage and allows electrical signals to travel faster. When the myelin sheath fails our signalling goes haywire and we end up with physical, visual, and cognitive problems.

Vitamin B12 is essential for maintaining and repairing the myelin sheath – but we need enough vitamin C to form it in the first place!

This new study from Japan is a gentle reminder to get plenty of vitamin C on our plates. Just published in PLOS ONE it’s well worth a swatch to help keep our wiring intact.

Suzanne.x

Shintaku, T., et al. (2026). Plasma vitamin C levels are associated with brain structural networks on MRI: A large cohort study. PLOS ONE, 21(2), e0348504.

09/06/2026

I’m sending out a special newsletter this week explaining the nuts and bolts of this very subject.

If you want to know what really causes GERD and how to help stop it… please keep an eye on yer inbox.

In the meantime, this latest research from UCF College of Medicine is worth a swatch. www.maddiet.co

Patients with acid reflux, which occurs when stomach acid pushes up into the esophagus, know the symptoms all too well: heartburn, belching, chest pain and trouble swallowing.

08/06/2026

This study from the north of England should be a wakeup call – especially for auld yins and folk with darker skin.

Researchers from Newcastle University found that summer sun alone wasn’t enough to raise vitamin D levels – leaving the majority of folk in these groups deficient.

As we age, the skin's capacity to produce vitamin D drops dramatically. Pensioners produce up to 75% less vitamin D from sun exposure compared to someone in their 20s.

At the age of 60 we produce 50% less vitamin D from sunlight compared to youngsters!

Older skin contains lower levels of 7-dehydrocholesterol (the essential lipid that converts to vitamin D when hit by UV light) and that’s why folk my age and older struggle to produce enough.

Darker skin also acts as a natural sunblock – absorbing less UVB radiation and thus the body producing less vitamin D from sun exposure.

This is why many of us need vitamin D all year round. It’s also why 170,000 hospital visits each year list vitamin D deficiency as a contributing factor.

Is it time we ditched the one-size-fits-all health advice and adopted proper precision nutrition? www.maddiet.co

Vitamin D levels remain low all year-round in key at-risk groups in England, challenging the belief that summer sunlight is enough to restore them.

04/06/2026

We get lots of lovely messages about our olive oil. But Marco across the sheugh in Belfast gets top marks for his kitchen display. Loving those snazzy tiles – totally bougie!

Thanks again to everyone for their support. It is truly appreciated.

03/06/2026

Judging each other has become par for the course down here. Partly genetics, mostly environmental, driven by vested interests most of us know nothing about.

Last week I sat in Copenhagen talking to an auld friend about Noam Chomsky. Once our hero but now on Jeffrey’s list. How many influencers have succumbed to manufacturing consent?

Today we live in a world I don’t recognise. I’m sure many people my age feels the same. Social contracts broken, value systems up in the air, and younger generations lacking the same optimism and gumption we had as kids.

It seems as if the very fabric of our society is slowly unravelling. Too many ingredients in a recipe doomed to fail unless it is carefully thought through.

Pointing fingers at rich people and immigrants is a shortcut to thinking. Yet here we are doing just that because it’s easy and convenient.

In truth, the state of our country is a reflection of who we are as individuals. How we think, how we act, and how we feel. That’s not some woo-woo new age claptrap – it’s crowd science and holographic principles.

If we yearn for better days, we need to make that happen and not outsource responsibility to others. If we want a society that actually works that starts by us digging in and doing the dog work.

No shortcuts. No blaming others. No copping out.

Trouble is we’ve now got an encyclopaedia in the palm of our hands and are questioning whether or not we’ve been duped. Granted some people stare at only fans or cats on their phones, but most of us have cottoned on to the ruse.

Dorothy knows she’s not in Kansas anymore… and might be wondering if Kansas really exists!

This is one of many quandaries confusing our youngsters unable to see the wood for the trees. With no spiritual guidance and our shamans long gone, they are stoating along like farts in the fog. Influenced more by what they see on screens than what their parents or mentors teach them.

Christian values once formed the backbone of our society but that is coming to an end. Our nation has become more cosmopolitan diluting the influence of the kirk.

Now, I’m no fan of Calvanist nutters and the people who burned women for thinking differently. I’m no aficionado of Rome either for all the obvious reasons. Yet amidst the shirt-lifting, dogmatic tendencies of these organisations is a congregation of good people following a moral code.

That code is being slowly degraded and replaced by something else.

Without spiritual or emotional intelligence, humans are governed by biology. S*x, food and survival instincts. We can’t help it. It’s written into our programming.

We’re also really susceptible to negativity bias - evolutionary hardwiring that makes us notice, process, and remember bad experiences far more acutely than positive ones. Our ancestors relied on this bias but it can skew our thinking today.

So, when something like covid comes along and the world’s media tells us we are going to kill our grannies by walking down a supermarket aisle in the wrong direction – that can really mess with our heads.

When we get bombarded with fear p**n every day on the news that warps our thinking too.

Now, just think back to when we were kids and how little we watched the news. Today, our youngsters get notifications pinged on their phones or see sensational posts on social media.

Of course, the irony in all of this is that the digital oligarchs send their weans to low tech schools! Children of the movers and shakers are taught in places where mobile phones are banned, tablets are taboo, and teachers scribble chalk on blackboards!

These people head up corporations that know everything about us and the people we vote for. Edward warned us, so did Julian… but we all know what happened to them.

In a world where leaders are either corrupted or compromised, we have a simple choice. Keep up the charade or take things into our own hands.

The framework of society starts with the individual and the family. Get that straight and then communities become stronger. We might not have the church to guide us anymore but most of us aren’t buttoned up the back!

Most of us know the difference between right and wrong – we just need to act on that inner instinct.

It’s hard being good in a world gone bad but we can turn this ship around by looking within.

If more of us take the time to do just that, we might realise that none of it matters anyway.

Suzanne.x

03/06/2026

Asleep at the wheel again. Too busy bickering about by-elections, Peter’s emails, or throwing up more windmills to power AI data centres!

Half of what we eat is either chilled or frozen – especially meat and dairy. That means we need cold storage and proper infrastructure to keep the cogs turning.

Between big bad Vlad and the orange jobby playing roulette with fertiliser and energy supplies, now more than ever we need to get our ducks in a row.

Back in the 70s during the Nixon fiasco my dad was on the ball. He installed a chest freezer in the shed, got a wee generator to run it, and bought direct from local farmers to keep us fed and wattered.

Today, Ed & Co want us to ditch meat and dairy to hit pie in the sky targets. So, why spend time securing a cold chain framework for foods they want us to give up?

Is it time our leaders took a leaf out of my dad’s book? During troubling times, our number one priority should be keeping nutritious food on the table. www.maddiet.co

Half of UK food relies on the cold chain, yet the UK Government is overlooking its role in food security and resilience, argues the Cold Chain Federation (CCF).

02/06/2026

Setting aside the hubris of biotech companies, consumers should have a choice. How can we make an informed decision if we don’t know what we’re buying?

Right up until quite recently almost all beef sold in UK supermarkets was British, Irish, or Polish. GM-free meat produced traditionally albeit varying quite widely on animal welfare and quality.

Today, supermarkets are buying more beef from countries where livestock is gene edited. Plus, England has approved the use of this technology which won’t be listed on the label!

Remember, all beef, lamb, and pork from Scotland, Wales, and N Ireland is produced without gene-editing technology.

Always look for the Scotch logo for higher animal welfare, grass-fed beef, and cattle reared as nature intended. www.maddiet.co

Campaigners warn that meat from gene edited animals could soon be on sale in supermarkets across England.

01/06/2026

It’s quite easy to get enough folate and B12 on our plates. Eggs for breakfast, home-made veggie soup or salad for lunch, and meat/fish and two veg for dinner.

The problem arises when our guts are gubbed and we struggle to metabolise these vitamins. Taking certain medications and eating certain foods can disrupt intestinal bacteria, as can bacterial or viral infections.

Proton pump inhibitors, metformin, MSG, emulsifiers, and high fructose corn syrup all hinder our ability to metabolise and synthesise B vitamins.

Wine, beer, and cider also contain sulfites that disrupt B vitamin absorption. Glyphosate in bread and cereals chelate cobalt – the central atom in the B12 molecule.

So, when you consider how much our diet has changed and the amount of chemicals in our food supply – is it any wonder so many of us feel knackered? Covid may have left lingering gut problems too.

This latest study from Japan is a gentle reminder about the importance of B vitamins for brain and body.

Checking homocysteine levels should be a top priority for GPs managing patients with CFS and ME. www.maddiet.co

A new study links elevated homocysteine from B12 and folate deficits to physical fatigue in men and low motivation in women.

29/05/2026

When I remortgaged my house to buy an olive farm in Catalunya friends thought I’d lost the plot. HMRC accused me of buying a holiday home in Spain – but so far, it’s been nae vacation!

Out at the finca it’s like camping out – no mod cons like we have at home. Jump around in the pish-poor shower to get wet, bugs everywhere because we don’t use chemicals, plus wild boar and the odd wolf to deal with.

Farming out here is wild west country with hunters tipping up on your land with guns. They are legally allowed to shoot boar wherever they please – even if it’s on your own doorstep!

Although I learned how to shoot many moons ago in Alberta, I don’t own a gun. Being a typical Weegie, I rely on humour and a bit of gallus swagger to wave off unwanted visitors.

So far, so good, as they don’t seem to bother us as much as other farmers in the valley. Inviting them in for a dram certainly helped and now they leave us alone.

When we arrive at the finca we don’t need mobile phones – we just stick on the Corries! Wild Mountain Thyme blasting from our terrace down the valley and the next day our neighbours pop by for a swally and a blether. Low tech communication – but it works.

This place is far from Costa del Chips. Other than the French coming down to nearby fishing villages in August for their summer holidays the region remains relatively untouched. Locals still working the land the auld way as generations did before them.

It’s beautiful to watch beekeepers moving hives up and down the mountain following the flora. Rice growers on the delta using hand tools – not machinery. And the Cava… oh the Cava! Bottles hand-turned every day – produced the exact same way as champagne without the price tag!

The Spanish have done a sh*te job at promoting their food compared to the French and Italians. To be honest, I think most local producers don’t care. Money doesn’t matter so much here as it does at home.

Dignity and honour matter more. That’s why I like them. I can see the auld Glasgow pride in these people. We’ve lost our way but they’ve held onto it.

Anyway, I’d just like to thank everyone for buying our organic early harvest extra virgin olive oil. It’s hard graft to produce and the long drive back to Scotland is a shift and a half. We don’t trust middle-men with our precious cargo so transport it ourselves.

Whole-chain transparency from our olive grove to your table… with love.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Suzanne.x

PS – thank you for all the positive feedback. It’s heartening to know that I wasn’t daft for risking it all and that the green medicine we produce is helping so many people in Scotland.x

29/05/2026

Remember when we all had a jar of Baxters on the table at mealtimes? Beetroot was once a staple condiment but those days are long gone.

Today, 1 in 5 Scots have never tried beetroot and that is a crying shame. The UK is self-sufficient in this root veggie and it’s also a canter to grow out the backdoor.

This latest study from the University of Exeter builds on previous research showing how beetroot can help lower blood pressure naturally.

One shot per day may be just the ticket – especially for older adults. Juicing beets is dead easy – but takes a bit more time if you don’t have a fancy juicing machine.

Just chop the beets, whizz in the blender with some water, sieve out the lumps, and freeze in ice cube trays.

Defrost one or two cubes in a wee glass of water and swig it down with breakfast. One small change can reap big benefits… and only costs us pennies! www.maddiet.co

Drinking nitrate-rich beetroot juice may do more than support heart health — it could actually reshape the bacteria living in the mouth in ways that help lower blood pressure in older adults. In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that older people who drank concentrated beetroot juic...